Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Why I am not buying a lottery ticket

I have nothing against gambling. I have nothing against the state holding them. I have nothing against losing.

My fear is that I would win the damned thing.

Then what?

Look at Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr.of Hurricane, West Virginia (about 15 miles from Poca) -- better known as Jack Whittaker. In December 2002, he won what at the time the largest Powerball jackpot ever, which was advertised as $314.9 million, but worth only $83 million after taxes when taken on a lump sum.

Only $83 million? What am I talking about? It was a ton of money, and Whittaker paid for every cent. The windfall proved to be his downfall.

He set up a foundation, and bout a house and a brand new SUV for the clerk who sold him the winning ticket. But his personal life was already had cracks in it, and the money was too large a load for him to bear. Within a month, he had a DUI.

He started going to the Pink Pony, a former Dairy Queen turned into a strip joint. Someone stole his SUV parked at the Pink Pony, which contained his briefcase that contained $545,000 in cash.

He had a wife, a daughter and a granddaughter. He lavished money on all three.

On September 17, 2003, her boyfriend was found dead in their home following a drug party. On December 9, 2003, she died of a drug overdose. She was 17. Money pays for a lot of parties when you are 17.

Within a year of winning, his life was a mess, as he was rolled by strippers and their boyfriends, and drugs killed his granddaughter.

The pre-lottery win Jack Whittaker was a far better man than I am. I can only imagine what four times as much money (the jackpot is now $1.4 billion) would do to me.

So you play the lottery. I'll keep my money -- and I will pray that you lose.

Think of all the convertibles you could buy if you won: red ones, blue ones, white ones, black ones, yellow ones, green ones. Why, you could drive a different car each day of the year and never have to fill the gas tank when you ran out: when the dial read empty, you could just switch to a different one that's got a full tank. You need to think this thing through, Don. I say, sleep on it.

It is a problem but not a huge one in fact. Responsible gaming is not something utopical. There are numerous experts available to give a piece of advice and help to manage the huge money. The people asking themselves such questions as you do won't have problems with that, I guess. PlayhugeLottos review

Being a father of a big family I can not afford wasting money , especially for lottery and gambling. Still sometimes I dream about winning lottery and even choose the numbers for French Lotto draws and later check them against the official French Lotto results. As it turns out I would have lost more than won.

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I live in Poca, West Virginia, with my lovely wife of 40 years, Lou Ann. I am an Army veteran and Cleveland State graduate. I retired after 40 years as a newspaperman. In 2016, I published "Trump the Press," which drew rave reviews at Power Line and Instapundit.